Man appealing human smuggling convictions to represent himself in U.S. court

One of the two men convicted in a deadly human smuggling operation along the border will represent himself in U.S. court.

One of two men convicted in a human smuggling operation along the Canada-U.S. border has been granted approval to proceed with his appeal in the United States without a lawyer.

Harshkumar Patel was sentenced to just over 10 years in prison last year, after a Minnesota jury found him guilty of being part of the smuggling ring that saw people from India brought to Canada on student visas then driven to areas near the border and told to walk across.

On one trip in 2022, a couple and their two children froze to death while walking overnight in a blizzard from southern Manitoba into Minnesota.

The trial was told Patel helped organize that trip and others while his co-accused — Steve Shand, who was sentenced to 6 1/2 years — worked as a driver and picked up migrants once they crossed into the United States.

Both men have filed appeals — Shand through a lawyer and Patel on his own, after court approved his application to self-represent.

Patel’s appeal focuses on seven arguments, including an assertion that the prosecution failed to prove he brought or attempted to bring aliens into the U.S. away from an official entry point.

It’s one of the four counts that Patel and Shand were convicted of in their 2024 trial in Minnesota district court.

“The evidence at the appellant’s trial was wholly insufficient to demonstrate that he was connected to conduct that occurred before the entry of illegal aliens to the United States,” Patel’s brief reads.

“Although the government connected him to Shand ... there was no other evidence showing any direct interaction with the aliens.”

Patel also argues the family from India died due to other people’s actions, not his, and that there were “procedural errors” in determining his sentence.

Shand’s appeal, filed in November, submits the border patrol agent who found the van with migrants inside didn’t have reasonable justification to stop the vehicle. Shand’s lawyer also says the family’s deaths were not “causally connected” to Shand’s actions.

The frozen bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife Vaishaliben Patel, 37; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and their three-year-old son, Dharmik, were found metres from the border in January 2022.

Patel is a common name in India, and the family was not related to Harshkumar Patel.

The temperature was -23 C and the wind chill had dipped below -35. There were no buildings or trees to provide shelter. The trial was told smugglers on the Canadian side of the border had given the family and several other migrants jeans, thin jackets, and hats and mitts designed for warmer weather.

One who made it across the border suffered severe hypothermia and was flown to Minneapolis for treatment.

North of the border, a man living in Brampton, Ont. — Fenil Patel — was arrested last September on an extradition request from the United States. He’s accused of participating in the smuggling ring.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 7, 2026.

Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press